affects many entities, including the region's traffic and emergency response efforts at Houston TranStar, a centralized transportation management and regional emergency management center. Houston, with a customer base of more than 3 million, is AT&T's largest service city. The city's telecommunications infrastructure completes more than 70 million Houston telephone connections daily. The Texas Public Utilities Commission has certified more than 400 additional local exchange carriers to provide service statewide or specifically within Houston. More than 1,600 interexchange carriers have registered with the commission to provide long-distance service. Higher education The University of Houston System's annual impact on the Houston-area's economy equates to that of a major corporation: $1.1 billion in new funds attracted annually to the Houston area, $3.13 billion in total economic benefit, and 24,000 local jobs generated. This is in addition to the 12,500 new graduates the UH System produces every year who enter the workforce in Houston and throughout Texas. These degree-holders tend to stay in Houston. After five years, 80.5 percent of graduates are still living and working in the region. Health care and biomedical The Texas Medical Center is the city's healthcare and biotechnology focal point with $3.5 billion committed to research grants from 2000 through 2004, more than 43 member institutions, 5.2 million patient visits in 2004. More than 65,000 health care professionals work there every day, treating more than five million patients from all over the world every year. The UT Research Park, a joint venture between The University of Texas M.D. Anderson and the UT Health Science Center at Houston, is located in the Medical Center. When fully developed, the UT Research Park will be made up of nearly 2 million square feet (180,000 m²) of research, lab, office and support space for private companies and not-for-profit research institutions. The venture will be focused on biotechnology and life sciences research. Baylor College of Medicine is home to the Human Genome Sequencing Center, one of only five in the nation. According to U.S. News & World Report, many hospitals in Houston consistently rank among the nation's top healthcare institutions. Manufacturing and industry Houston is home to more than 10,700 manufacturing establishments. The city ranked as a Gold Medal World-Class Community for Manufacturing for four consecutive years by Industry Week magazine. The Houston-Gulf Coast region has nearly 40 percent of the U.S. capacity for base petrochemicals, ensuring rapid access to major resin producers and